A

POEM

Sacred to the MEMORY of

SR. ISAAC NEWTON

To the Memory of, &c.

But what can man ?--- Even now the fons of light
In ftrains high-warbled to feraphic lyre,

Hail his arrival on the coaft of blifs.

Yet am not I deterr'd, tho' high the theme,
And fung to harps of angels, for with you,
Ethereal Flames! ambitious, Iafpire
In Nature's general fymphony to join.

And what new wonders can ye fhow your guest!
Who, while on this dim fpot, where mortals toil
Clouded in duft, from Motion's fimple laws,
Could trace the fecret hand of Providence,
Wide-working thro' this univerfal frame.

Have ye not liften'd while he bound the Suns,
And Planets to their spheres! th' unequal task
Of humankind till then. Oft had they roll'd
O'er erring Man the year, and oft difgrac'd

The pride of schools, before their courfe was known
Full in its caufes and effects to him,

All-piercing fage! who fat not down and dream'd

Romantic schemes, defended by the din

Of fpecious words, and tyranny of names;

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But, bidding his amazing mind attend,

And

And with heroic patience years on years

Deep-fearching, faw at laft the System dawn,
And fhine, of all his race, on him alone;

What were his raptures then! how pure! how strong! And what the triumphs of old Greece and Rome,;

By his diminish'd, but the pride of boys

In fume fmall fray victorious! when instead
Of flatter'd parcels of this earth ufurp'd
By violence unmanly, and fore deeds
Of cruelty and blood, Nature herself

Stood all fubdu'd by him, and open laid

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Her every latent Glory to his view.

All intellectual eye, our folar Round

Firft gazing thro', he by the blended power

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Of Gravitation aud Projection saw

The whole in filent harmony revolve.

From unaffifted vision hid, the Moons
To chear remoter planets numerous pour'd,

By him in all their mingled tracts were seen.

He also fix'd the wandering Queen of Night,
Whether the wanes into a fcanty orb,

Or, waxing broad, with her pale fhadowy light,
In a foft deluge overflows the sky.

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Her

Her every motion clear-difcerning, He
Adjusted to the mutual Main, and taught
Why now the mighty mass of water fwells
Refiftless, heaving on the broken rocks,
And the full river turning; till again
The tide revertive, unattracted, leaves
A yellow waste of idle fands behind.

Then breaking hence, he took his ardent flight thro' the blue Infinite; and every Star, Which the clear concave of a winter's night

Pours on the eye, or aftronomic tube,

Far ftretching, fnatches from the dark abyfs,

Or fuch as farther in fucceffive skies
To fancy fhine alone, at his approach
Blaz'd into Suns, the living centre each
Of an harmonious fyftem: all combin'd,
And rul'd unerring by that fingle power,
Which draws the ftone projected to the ground,

Ounprofufe magnificence divine!

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O Wifdom truly perfect! thus to call

From a few causes such a scheme of things,

Effects fo various, beautiful, and great,

D

An

An univerfe compleat! and O belov'd
Of heaven! whofe well-purg'd penetrative eye,
The mystic veil tranfpiercing, inly scan'd
The rifing, moving, wide-eftablish'd frame.

He, firft of men, with awful wing purfu'd
The Comet thro' the long Eliptic curve,
As round innumerous worlds he wound his way;
Till, to the forehead of our evening sky

Return'd, the blazing wonder glares anew,
And o'er the trembling nations shakes dismay.

The heavens are all his own; from the wild rule
Of whirling Vortices, and circling Spheres,
To their firft great fimplicity restor❜d,

The fchools aftonifh'd ftood; but found it vain
To keep at odds with demonftration ftrong,
And, unawaken'd, dream beneath the blaze
Of truth. At once their pleafing visions fled,
With the gay fhadows of the morning mix'd,
When Newton rofe, our philofophic fun.

Th' aerial flow of Sound was known to him,

From whence it firft in wavy circles breaks,